Husband gets life for arranging for girlfriend to kill wife in New Jersey

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A man convicted of conspiring to have his wife murdered as the couple walked along a suburban New Jersey street with their toddler in a stroller was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison, prosecutors said.

Kashif Parvaiz, 30, of Brooklyn, New York, was convicted in February of arranging for his girlfriend to shoot his wife to death and wound him, making it look like a random attack, according to Morris County prosecutors.

"The court imposed a severe sentence which was certainly justified by the horrific and cowardly acts of the unrepentant defendant," prosecutor Fredric Knapp said in a statement.

His wife, Nazish Noorani, 27, was killed on Aug. 16, 2011, as she walked with her husband and their 2-year-old son in Boonton, New Jersey, where the couple was visiting family. Parvaiz and Noorani had two children.

The girlfriend, Antoinette Stephen, pleaded guilty to murder in May 2013 and testified against Parvaiz at his trial.

He was found guilty in Morris County Superior Court on all counts, including first-degree murder, conspiracy and child endangerment.